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Pete's avatar

Lets see - a wood floor. As much natural light as possible, and, since I am in the Pacific Northwest, sufficient electrical light for older eyes - which means a lot of light. Heat for three seasons! If generating any kind of sawdust, a dust collection system, with the machinery and collectors outside the shop, under a small shed roof (such a system has made a huge and very positive difference in my brothers shop). Overhead electrical outlets, preferably on reels. I'd be tempted to build the back wall of the shop so that a longer boat could on occasion be accommodated. Long workbenches on each side of the shop that could support planking jigs and longer masts and/ or spars.

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John Welsford's avatar

One of the issues I mind when laying out my workshop, is that we boat builders often handle long lengths of lumber, stringers, planks, mast staves and such all go over the sawbench and, or through the thickness planer so I make sure that I can do that without obstruction. In one small shop I occupied for a while I made a "hatch" in one wall which lined up with those machines on the outfeed side, so, with the hatch open I only had to accommodate the infeed end within the shop.

In others I line those machines up with a doorway, and in my current shop which is 12 meters long I have lined them up along the boat build space which is on one side along the long axis of the shop.

The bandsaw is also a consideration, mine being a 20 in heavyweight unit there are times when I'm putting really big pieces of plywood through that, and I need space in which to swing up to half a sheet when cutting curves so the location of that, with enough clear space in which to work is essential.

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